Day 9-- Saved the Best for Last

 

I don't think we got enough pictures with our fellow sailors-- Andrea's zest for life is inspiring and contagious.  She is the Muzzy to my Millie Dillmount (characters from the Thoroughly Modern Millie movie.  If you've not seen it, you really must.

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this day.  I LOVED the Tobago Cays.  It was definitely my favorite(s) of the islands.  Okay, here we go-- this ones a doozy.

The snorkeling here was very different from the other locations because it was almost completely a sandy bottom with just a little plant life for the sea turtles to eat.  And we did see a lot of sea turtles.

Abe did a really good job of getting some great underwater pictures.  

And I'd never seen sea stars like these on the ocean floor.  They were huge and there were so many of them.  

They all looked just a little bit different.

And they all had five points-- except this little beauty:) Behold, the four-armed sea star.

Abe saw this baracuda.  

Okay, I think I have thoroughly covered the awesome sea life.  

The island of Baradal was my absolute favorite-- the views were mindblowing.  I couldn't take it all in!  The multiple shades of blue---ahhhhhh!!!  And there was NO ONE else on the island.  We hiked over to the other side where there wasn't a person or boat in sight.  These islands are so far south, that they are almost to Venezuela.  So remote-- so breathtaking-- this was an experience I will never forget.

I liked this tree

It was surprising how dry the islands were.  I didn't think there would be cacti on a tropical island, but obviously, there were.

As much as I enjoyed sailing on the water, I think I loved hiking on land even more.

We saw several big iguanas.  We did not attempt to catch them because they can be ornery.  But I'd never seen one in the wild.

Maybe this one is my favorite picture of us.  This was the beach on the other side where there was no person or boat as far as the eye could see.  

No comment.

Back to the boat.

This is a picture of me kayaking over to Jamesby-- another of the cays.  This was so much fun-- the water was a little choppy, but so clear and so blue and just blow-your-mind-gorgeous.  Once again, not only was it an uninhabited island but there was no one else on or near the island.  We pulled our kayak up onto the shore and went exploring.

The little island on the right side near the boats is Baradal-- the one we had just come from.

Are you surprised to see another selfie?

I like this picture.  

We hiked back down and decided to kayak around the island.  Why not?  It was interesting that the water on the other side of the island was very calm, and as soon as we came back around it was choppy again. It took a little muscle to get back to the boat.

This is a picture of Abe kayaking back to our boat with Jamesby in the background.  I like this picture, too.  And then, sadness--- we left the Tobago Cays.  

But it was okay because next, we headed to Salt Whistle Bay on Mayreau.  We couldn't be too sad:)

I'm running out of adjectives to describe this paradise.  Abe loved to jump off the bow of the boat.

Ignore the date stamp-- it's wrong.  This is a picture of Island Betsy jumping off the bow.  You'll just have to trust that it really is me.  The timing of taking the picture isn't quite as quick with our underwater camera as a phone camera.  

I don't even know how I got here.  I guess on some level I knew that places like this actually existed.  But now it sort of feels like a dream.  I mean, I was actually there, right?

No words.

Even my pigtails are relaxed.

Sigh.

Another island, another hike!  This was fun because we followed "the road" (the only road) across to the other side and where we met up with our boat.

Since this was to be our last day for hiking, Abe and I decided to go a little farther, up to the highest point on the island.  We thought there would be a rewarding view.  But I will admit, it was kind of a bust.  I mean, not a total bust-- we were still on a beautiful island in the Caribbean-- but the trail led to a small, inspiring water storage thing and there was no view.  And it was HOT!  Like, really hot and muggy.  This was the only time during the whole trip that it was uncomfortably hot.  

After our somewhat disappointing destination, we headed down through the village to the other side of the island.  This was my favorite house-- I loved the bright colors.  And I liked the signs pointing directions to other places in the world.  Our neighbor has a similar sign, so it made me happy. 

Well, well, well... what did we find on the other side of the island?  Why, it's another gorgeous deserted beach!  How surprising!

Kidding, it was not surprising--- they are everywhere!!!!!! Incredible.

On so many of the islands, there were so many conch shells washed up on shore.

After the disappointment in our initial dinner ashore back on Bequia, we begged Donny (our chef) to please let us just pay him to cook us whatever he had left in the galley.  We just wanted his food.  He said we had to go.  Boo! Hiss!  

Awww, so handsome.

Our final Grenadines sunset.  

Sunset selfie

This was a fun moment!  We watched a little Pirates of the Caribbean while in the Caribbean, while engaging in more capture-the-pirate-flag antics with the other two boats.  

Let it be known that our boat won the game!